


The Limits of Mercy

by DividedWeFall88



Series: Late Love [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Catra (She-Ra) Redemption, Dark Glimmer (She-Ra), F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Season/Series 04, Revenge, Secret Parent, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:27:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22038535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DividedWeFall88/pseuds/DividedWeFall88
Summary: Shadow Weaver has been imprisoned since the end of the war.  But even as a prisoner, she can still hurt Catra.  Just how far is Glimmer willing to go to protect her friend?
Relationships: Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: Late Love [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1586296
Comments: 3
Kudos: 77





	The Limits of Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> The following is a fan parody. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is owned by Noelle Stevenson and DreamWorks and Licensed by Netflix. Please support the official release.
> 
> This story takes place roughly a year before TOO LATE FOR LOVE.

When Horde Prime and his forces had first arrived at Etheria Shadow Weaver had been aligned with Brightmoon and the Princess Alliance. But after she became convinced that Horde Prime’s victory was inevitable she had decided to defect to the galactic overlord’s side. The cunning sorceress had waited until the worst possible moment (right before the princesses were planning to take down Horde Prime) to switch sides. Bringing all her knowledge of the princesses plans, strengths, and weaknesses with her, and sharing it with the interstellar tyrant.

If not for Catra’s quick thinking, Shadow Weaver’s act of treachery would have doomed all of Etheria to oppression or destruction at Horde Prime’s hand. 

Afterwards Shadow Weaver had been imprisoned again. In a specially constructed prison (that Princess Entrapta had been more than happy to help design and build) deep beneath Brightmoon Castle. The prison had no magic for the magical parasite to drain, relying instead on things such as forcefield generators, steel doors, and mechanical locks. Nor did it have living guards for the devious and cunning Shadow Weaver to manipulate, using emotionless robots to guard the dark sorceress instead.

In the first few months after the underground prison was built Shadow Weaver wasn’t the only inmate there. With the Queen of Brightmoon keeping other prisoners she regarded as especially dangerous (such as Force Captain Octavia) in cells next to Shadow Weaver’s. But as time passed all the other inmates were pardoned and released or transferred to less secure (and more pleasant) prisons above ground.

Only Shadow Weaver was kept in the special underground prison. Isolated and alone. With only the robotic guards who brought the dark sorceress her meals for company.

The manipulative old parasite had remained there for almost four years. Then one of her robotic guards had unexpectedly announced that she would have visitors soon and should make herself presentable. It seemed that she still had something to offer her captors.

*****

Shadow Weaver was not surprised to discover that the visitors were two of her old students. Catra and Queen Glimmer (who was accompanied by a pair of royal guards). 

Glimmer much thinner and more stern looking than Shadow Weaver remembered. Wearing a somber looking dark blue dress as she gazed at her old mentor coldly. Her physique, clothing choices, and demeanor reminding the devious sorceress of herself (back when she was still known as Light Spinner).

Whereas Catra was curvier and softer looking than the magical parasite remembered. The former child soldier’s mismatched eyes no longer held the manic almost desperate gleam they once had. While her right arm (which had ended in a bloody stump the last time Shadow Weaver saw it), now sported a silvery mechanical hand. The cat-woman’s laid-back ears and lashing tail signaling her nervousness as she stared at her childhood tormentor.

“She’s gone soft” Shadow Weaver thought contemptuously as she regarded Catra.

While Catra and Shadow Weaver were staring at each other, Glimmer was casting a spell. Which the sorceress instantly recognized as a Truth Spell. But Shadow Weaver was confident that it wasn’t strong enough to bind a creature such as herself.

“My Queen it’s so nice to-.”

Shadow Weaver had always had a talent for telling people what they wanted to hear. Knowing just what to say to manipulate those in power. But as she tried to say her well-practiced lies, the dark sorceress found herself unable to utter them.

Glimmer smirked as her old mentor was literally rendered speechless. 

However, Shadow Weaver was not the type to give up so easily. The treacherous sorceress turned to Catra. Knowing exactly what to say to get under the skin of the girl she had raised.

“Catra I am so happy that-.”

But once again the lies died in Shadow Weaver’s throat just as she was about to utter them. Because Queen Glimmer’s Truth Spell was too strong for even Shadow Weaver to resist. And too sophisticated for the magical parasite to feed on.

“Don’t even bother trying to lie…my Truth Spell is too strong” Glimmer bragged as she glared at Shadow Weaver.

The dark sorceress looked much the same as Catra and Glimmer remembered. Her hideous face hidden beneath a cracked mask, the parasite’s midnight hair long and tangled, wearing crimson robes. 

An active forcefield kept Shadow Weaver inside her cell. Which still allowed those outside to see every inch of the spartan little room. Putting the magical parasite on display like an animal at the zoo.

What do you want?” Shadow Weaver eventually asked, deciding to try to make the best of the situation.

Glimmer glanced at Catra after their old mentor spoke. This was all for Catra. After months of experimentation and tinkering Princess Entrapta had finally gotten the portal machine working properly and tomorrow Glimmer and Catra were going to use it to enter the alternate reality where Queen Angella had been trapped for almost half a decade to rescue the immortal being. But there was no way of knowing what Glimmer and Catra would find in there. So before she ventured into the unknown, Catra had some unfinished business to take care of.

“Where did I come from? Who is my real mother?” Catra asked softly as she stared at the woman who had tormented her for her entire childhood.

Shadow Weaver tried to remain silent. Not wanting to give up one of her last pieces of leverage so easily. But a truth spell as strong as this one didn’t just prevent you from lying. It also compelled you to answer questions truthfully.

“You were born in the Fright Zone and your mother is me.”

“THE SPELL DIDN’T WORK!” Catra said to Glimmer as her tail lashed angrily and her big ears lay flat against her skull (assuming that Shadow Weaver was lying somehow).

“Oh it worked child…I simply told you what you didn’t want to hear” Shadow Weaver replied truthfully.

“If I’m your daughter why did you torture me growing up? Why was nothing I did ever good enough for you?” Catra desperately demanded to know. Shadow Weaver’s confession seeming to call all of her old anxieties and self-doubts back life.

“Because you were a disappointment from the moment I gave birth to you…I only had you because I needed the body of a close blood relative and I killed everybody in my family before coming to the Fright Zone” Shadow Weaver confessed.

“Why?” Catra whispered, looking on the edge of tears.

“I knew that the monster inside me would eventually consume me from the inside out…but I had a spell that would transfer my mind and spirit to a new body before that happened…however it would only work between blood relatives” the dark sorceress explained.

“What would that do to Catra?” Glimmer angrily asked.

“It would have destroyed her mind and soul to make room for my own…but it never got that far because the little failure couldn’t do the one thing she was created for…Catra was incompatible with the spell” Shadow Weaver replied angrily.

Of course Shadow Weaver had a pretty good idea why Catra was incompatible. The same malignant entity inside the sorceress that was slowly killing her (and transformed her into a magical parasite) had probably affected Catra in the womb. But even though it wasn’t really Catra’s fault, Shadow Weaver still blamed her.

“Your very conception was one of my greatest failures Catra” the dark sorceress cruelly told her daughter.

This was too much for Catra. The feline woman couldn’t deal with these horrifying revelations. So she bolted, fleeing from Shadow Weaver’s cruelty the way that she had so many times as a child.

“You’re a monster” Glimmer told Shadow Weaver as she looked at the sorceress with loathing.

“In my position you would have done the same” Shadow Weaver told the Queen. Able to say such a horrible thing (despite the Truth Spell) because she truly believed that deep down, everybody was as selfish and self-serving as she was.

*****

Catra had retreated to her room in Brightmoon Castle after fleeing from Shadow Weaver. Queen Glimmer found the cat-woman curled into a fetal position and quietly crying on her soft bed. A mostly empty plate of cookies next to her (since leaving the Fright Zone and finding out what real food tasted like, Catra had started relying on comforts foods during times of stress).

Glimmer gently pushed the plate and most of the crumbs aside before sitting down on the big bed. Softly stroking Catra’s back as she murmured words of reassurance. 

“Shhh…it’s okay…I’m here…she can’t hurt you anymore…you’re safe here.”

Eventually Catra stopped crying and began to relax under Glimmer’s gentle touch. Before Glimmer and Catra had been imprisoned aboard Horde Prime’s flagship a moment like this would have been impossible. But since that event had forced them to work together (against a common enemy) they had become friends. Now Glimmer couldn’t imagine her life without Catra in it.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Glimmer asked her friend after Catra had been silent for a while.

“When…when I was little I sometimes imagined my REAL mother coming to take me away from Shadow Weaver and the Fright Zone…in these fantasies she would take Adora too and we would all live together as a family somewhere safe…But I never really had a loving mother…it was always just Shadow Weaver” Catra said hopelessly as she lifted her tear stained face to stare at Glimmer.

“Shadow Weaver’s lying…she’s not your mother…my spell didn’t work for some reason” Glimmer lied, wanting to wipe the sad hopeless look from Catra’s face. Trying to convince herself too (because the idea that Shadow Weaver had given birth to Catra just to destroy her body and soul, and then hated the girl due to the fact that she couldn’t, seemed too horrible to accept).

Catra was pretty good at detecting when people lied to her. But she trusted Glimmer completely at this point. Moreover, she wanted desperately to believe what she was hearing.

The smaller woman got up and embraced her friend. Her body quivering with emotion as she confessed something to Glimmer, words that she had thought many times but never had the nerve to say before.

“I love you.”

“I love you too” Glimmer said softly into one of Catra’s big ears as she hugged her back.

Catra had become an even dearer friend than Bow over the last few years (though Glimmer would never tell the archer that). Their traumatic experiences aboard Horde Prime’s ship had forged a bond stronger than any other relationship in Glimmer’s life. She truly loved Catra, and more than just a friend (though Glimmer wasn’t certain how to tell Catra that).

“I’m never letting that monster hurt you again” Glimmer silently promised Catra as she held her beloved in her arms.

*****

A few hours after her meeting with Catra and Glimmer, Shadow Weaver woke up from a nap only to realize something was different. 

She had gotten so used to the constant barely audible ‘hum’ of the forcefield in her cell over the last few years that its absence felt jarring. As Shadow Weaver looked around she realized that her robotic guards were gone too. Giving Shadow Weaver a clear path to the elevator that was the only way out of the prison.

The dark sorceress rushed to the elevator, seeing a chance at freedom for the first time in years. Frantically pushing the elevator button repeatedly. Staring avidly as it opened moments later.

Shadow Weaver stepped inside the elevator. Putting her finger on the button that would take the compartment up to Castle Brightmoon. But then she hesitated.

“It can’t be a coincidence that the security systems stop working the same day that I meet with the Queen for the first time in years” the devious sorceress thought as she remembered the murderous glare Glimmer had sent her way before running after Catra.

Shadow Weaver slowly and reluctantly took her finger off the button that would take her above ground for the first time in years. Stepping out of the elevator, then going back to her cell.

*****

Queen Glimmer was waiting in a hallway of Castle Brightmoon, staring at a pair of elevator doors.

The only way in or out of the underground prison was to take the elevator. Which could only stop at the prison and this part of the castle. Meaning that to escape, Shadow Weaver would have to exit the elevator right in front of Glimmer.

“It’s not murder if you’re defending yourself” Glimmer rationalized as she fidgeted with her weapon.

Shadow Weaver could kill magical creatures like princesses with a touch, and as a magical parasite the dark sorceress was all too likely to simply absorb any magical attack Glimmer sent her way. But the laser pistol in the queen’s hand (a trophy from her victory over Horde Prime) wasn’t magical at all. Considering the fact that it was also a ranged weapon, the gun was almost ideal for taking down somebody like Shadow Weaver.

The Queen had dismissed most of the royal guards for the night, and ‘accidentally’ deactivated all the automated security systems for the prison (such as the robotic guards, forcefields, security cameras, etc. etc.). Which meant that once Shadow Weaver came out of that elevator it would just be between her and Glimmer. But after almost an hour of waiting the dark sorceress still hadn’t emerged from her prison.

Eventually the Queen of Brightmoon lost patience and took the elevator down to the prison. Finding Shadow Weaver inside her cell. The magical parasite was sitting on her bed and reading one of the few books Glimmer had allowed her to have in her cell (a romance novel) when the queen arrived.

“Why didn’t you try to escape?” don’t you want to get out of here?” Glimmer demanded to know.

“Of course I do child…but I recognize an obvious trap when I see it” Shadow Weaver said condescendingly as she put down her book and stood up.

“There wasn’t any trap” Glimmer replied, but she didn’t sound convincing even to her own ears.

Shadow Weaver laughed in response and said, “please stop Glimmer you’re embarrassing yourself…you obviously want me dead, but you need an excuse…a way to rationalize it to yourself and your friends.”

“But I am not going to give you one child…if you’re going to kill me it will have to be cold blooded murder and I don’t think you have the stomach for that” Shadow Weaver continued contemptuously as she literally turned her back on Glimmer.

The Queen of Brightmoon felt a fresh wave of hatred and loathing for her former teacher as she stared at the dark sorceress. Who was so confident that Glimmer wouldn’t attack that she was exposing her back to the younger woman and making no move to defend herself. Showing the queen the same kind of contempt that she had displayed to Catra her entire life.

But Glimmer didn’t hate Shadow Weaver just because of what the sorceress had done to Catra.

It seemed like Shadow Weaver was at least partially responsible for everything that had gone wrong in the young monarch’s life. The dark sorceress had manipulated and exploited Glimmer’s father when she was his teacher at Mystacor, and then later exiled him to Beast Island. Shadow Weaver had done her best to manipulate and brainwash Adora into becoming the perfect Horde soldier. As well as torturing Glimmer herself back when Shadow Weaver was still the Commander of the Horde.

Even the Etherian Horde itself had been corrupted by Shadow Weaver. Although Hordak’s empire had always been ruthless and brutal the sorceress had been the one to make it truly cruel. She was the one who had instituted the policy of aggressively recruiting babies and young children who had been orphaned by the war (in most cases killed by the Horde itself) to fill the ranks of Hordak’s army. 

As a clone who had emerged from his growth chamber fully formed (in a military made up of such clones) Hordak had little understanding of children, so he had given Shadow Weaver almost complete free rein when it came to raising those poor orphans. The parasite creating a system of isolation from the outside world, constant propaganda, harsh training from an early age, and draconian punishments, to turn these orphans into ruthless and obedient soldiers who would never question their superiors.

Last but not least, Shadow Weaver’s defection to Horde Prime’s side had ruined Glimmer and Catra’s plan to assassinate the galactic tyrant before he knew what was going on. Resulting in the battle where Catra had lost a hand (and many of Glimmer’s other friends and allies had been hurt or killed).

The hand holding the laser pistol was shaking with barely suppressed rage as Glimmer remembered Shadow Weaver’s dark deeds. But the older woman seemed more amused than anything else as she gazed at her captor. Casually sitting down on her bed as she said “Catra’s father was weak too.”

“What do you mean?” Glimmer asked as she managed to rein in her anger a bit, genuinely curious because she knew nothing about Catra’s father.

“Catra’s father was a Magicat and unlike most of his people his life was spared when the Horde conquered their kingdom…dear Draco would do ANYTHING I asked rather than risk my wrath” Shadow Weaver said with a leer that was thankfully hidden beneath her mask.

Glimmer remembered reading about the Horde destroying the Magicat kingdom of Halfmoon. But everybody had always assumed that the Horde had wiped them all out. Apparently though there had been at least one survivor.

“So what happened to Catra’s father?” Glimmer asked, knowing that this story couldn’t have had a happy ending.

“After Catra was born Draco became…sentimental…the fool seemed to think that he had some sort of claim on Catra just because he had sired her…one night when I sleeping he snuck into my room and took Catra from her crib…planning on leaving the Fright Zone with her and starting a new life with his daughter somewhere else…he had a perfect opportunity to kill me and escape with the baby before anyone realized what had happened…but like you he hesitated to do what was necessary…perhaps he was also reluctant to murder Catra’s mother in front of her…whatever the case before he left the room Catra began to cry and woke me up then I killed him on the spot” Shadow Weaver explained.

Glimmer stared at the sociopathic old witch with absolute loathing as Shadow Weaver finished her tale. The Queen of Brightmoon had never imagined she could hate anyone as much as she did Shadow Weaver right now.

“How do you think Catra will react when I tell her that her loving father is dead because of her?” Shadow Weaver cruelly mused aloud.

The question seemed to make something snap inside Glimmer. She wouldn’t let Shadow Weaver hurt Catra again (or anyone else for that matter). Raising her gun and firing in one quick motion.

The laser pistol was set to maximum power, so the energy blast was powerful enough to sever Shadow Weaver’s right arm just above the elbow. It was also hot enough to instant cauterize the wound. Shadow Weaver screaming in agony and horror as she watched her arm hit the floor.

“NO PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!” Shadow Weaver frantically begged as Glimmer advanced on her. The old manipulator’s confidence and haughtiness stripped away by pain and fear. Literally pissing herself in fear as Glimmer fired again.

The second shot took off Shadow Weaver’s left leg below the knee. Making her collapse to the ground. As the sorceress’s head hit the floor her mask came loose, revealing her twisted features. Tears of pain and fear running down her cheeks.

“Please stop your majesty I’ll be a good mother to Catra and a loyal subject and whatever else you want just don’t kill me!” Shadow Weaver pathetically begged.

But Glimmer wasn’t listening. Too lost in her own rage to hear any of Shadow Weaver’s pleas for mercy. The Queen hadn’t delivered a killing blow yet simply because had never used the weapon before and wasn’t much of a marksman with it.

Which is why Glimmer walked up to Shadow Weaver and placed the barrel of the laser pistol right up against the magical parasite’s forehead. Shadow Weaver stared up at Glimmer with pleading eyes but saw no mercy left in her gaze. Trying to pull her head away just as Glimmer pressed down on the trigger again.

Firing the laser pistol at max power point blank made Shadow Weaver’s head explode. Showering Glimmer in blood and gore. Making the queen recoil from what she had just done.

Then something seemed to emerge from Shadow Weaver’s corpse. A strange shadowy mass that appeared to be made mostly of eyes and teeth. But Glimmer simply screamed in fury and shot it too.

The abomination emitted a blood curdling scream and exploded into dust when the blast hit it. Dissolving in the process. Leaving behind virtually no trace that it had ever existed.

Then Glimmer simply stared down at Shadow Weaver’s headless corpse as the enormity of what she had just done hit her. Sometime later a member of the royal guard took the elevator down to the prison (she had just begun her shift, and no one seemed to know where the queen). Finding the queen standing over Shadow Weaver’s mutilated body.

“Your majesty I’ve been looking everywhere for OH GOD IS THAT SHADOW WEAVER!” the guard exclaimed as she caught sight of the dead sorceress.

The words seemed to bring Glimmer back to reality.

“Yes…Shadow Weaver was about to escape so I did what I had to” Glimmer told the guard (hoping that she sounded convincing).

“But she’s still in her cell and how could she run away with only one leg?” the guard asked in honest confusion as she stared at the corpse.

“Shadow Weaver was about to escape so I had no choice but to kill her…understood” Glimmer angrily told the guard.

Guardswoman Helena had served the royal family for years, and she had known Glimmer since she was a little girl. Helena had sometimes thought of Glimmer uncharitably (when she was acting spoiled or impatient as a child), but she never thought of the princess as a threatening person. Yet as the young monarch stood over her headless victim’s corpse, covered in blood, and with the murder weapon still gripped in her hand, Helena felt frightened of Glimmer for the first time.

“Of of course your majesty” the royal guard replied uneasily (thinking that perhaps it was time to finally retire).

*****

After her confrontation with Helena, the Queen went to take a shower. Lost in her thoughts as she stood under the water and watched the blood literally wash away.

“I had no choice…if I hadn’t killed her Shadow Weaver would have just kept hurting Catra and anybody else she could…besides that monster was so cunning and skilled it was only a matter of time until she escaped for real” Glimmer told herself.

As she put on fresh clothes Glimmer debated if she should tell Catra anything about her father Draco. Eventually deciding that since Shadow Weaver had not even been under a Truth Spell at the time she couldn’t trust anything the dark sorceress had told her right before she died.

Glimmer was debating how to tell Catra about Shadow Weaver’s death when the Magicat hybrid came to her. Catra rushed into Glimmer’s room and pounced on the princess, wrapping her friend in a fierce embrace as they both fell to the floor. Her words tinged with fear and worry as she asked “all you all right? Did Shadow Weaver hurt you?”

Word of Shadow Weaver’s death was already spreading rapidly throughout the castle. About how the evil witch had tried to escape and their valiant queen had stopped her. Forced to kill the sorceress to prevent Shadow Weaver’s escape.

Shadow Weaver was such a hated and despised figure at this point, that everybody always assumed the worst of her. The general consensus was that the traitor (who had joined and betrayed virtually every major faction during the war) had got what was coming to her. Many people were already saying that the monster didn’t deserve the benefit of a funeral or gravestone (that they should simply toss her corpse into an unmarked grave and be done with it).

Only Glimmer knew the truth.

“I’m fine that monster can’t hurt either of us anymore” Glimmer told her friend as she hugged Catra back.

As Glimmer stared into Catra’s mismatched eyes she felt a sudden desire to unburden herself and tell her friend everything. But she didn’t want to hurt Catra, and she was also afraid that the catgirl would think less of her if Catra knew that Glimmer had murdered her mother. So Glimmer said nothing.

“I won’t let anybody hurt you like that again” Glimmer mentally promised as she held her beloved in her arms.

**Author's Note:**

> I've actually been toying with the idea of Shadow Weaver being Catra's real mom for awhile.
> 
> For one thing SW is the only canon character where being Catra's biological mother seems plausible (it certainly wouldn't make sense for a character like Queen Angella or Madam Razz to be her mom). Its also the answer that would result in the most tension and angst.
> 
> Moreover, being Catra's mother, yet still treating her so abusively makes Shadow Weaver seem like even more of a monster. 
> 
> I'm not quite happy with Shadow Weaver's death scene, for one thing, I'm not sure whether or not the dark sorceress would panic like that. It does seem perfectly in character for her (at least to me) that Shadow Weaver would beg her executioner for mercy, but its hard to say to what extent that would be motivated by outright terror instead of merely an attempt to manipulate someone into sparing her life.
> 
> I know that Glimmer is acting out of character in this story, but that's the point.
> 
> The war hardened Glimmer, and now as Queen she's willing to go to extremes to protect her friends, family, and people. Whereas Catra is trying to do the opposite. Be less violent, more forgiving, more generous and selfless, etc. etc. Which ironically, motivates Glimmer to be even more zealous in her efforts to protect Catra.
> 
> I am not as pleased with this tale as I was with TOO LATE FOR LOVE.  
> I feel that THE LIMITS OF MERCY doesn't work as well as a standalone story and is weaker overall.
> 
> I am thinking about some more installments in this series, one that takes place immediately after Queen Angella is rescued from her dimensional prison (which would be just a few days after this story), and another about Catra's time rebuilding the Fright Zone with Scorpia.


End file.
